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VBVMI StaffIn Galatians 4:25, it seems to suggest that Jerusalem is in slavery with Hagar because they are her children. Can you please explain?
In Galatians 4 Paul makes the following statement:
Paul taught an allegory from the account of Sarah sending away Hagar and Ishmael. In the allegory Hagar represents the nation of Israel under the Law awaiting freedom in Christ. Just as Hagar was a servant of Sarah and in bondage to her, so is Israel in bondage under the Law, as Paul taught in the beginning of Galatians 4:
Therefore, "the present Jerusalem” of Galatians 4:25 refers to the Israel that is under the Law, which is every Jew who has not yet placed their faith in Jesus Christ. Pastor Armstrong echoes Paul’s teaching on this point as he correctly stated that the present Israel is in bondage under the Law. What was true for the Israel of Paul’s day remains true for the Israel of today. Only by being born again through faith in Jesus Christ may a Jew be freed from this bondage, as Paul implies in his allegory in vs.26-29.
Those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ are children of the promise, as was Isaac. They are born according to the Spirit, and as such they overcome those born according to the flesh.
To suggest that present-day Jerusalem is descended from Hagar is to confuse the allegory with reality. In an allegory, each literal figure (i.e., Sarah, Hagar, etc.) stands for something. In this allegory, Hagar stands for the bondage under the Law, and therefore Pastor Armstrong said that present-day Jerusalem is also like Hagar because unbelieving Jews today are under the same bondage to the Law as the Jerusalem of Paul’s day.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org